Three-dimensional surface reconstruction and fluorescent visualization of cardiac activation

Area of Science:

• Cardiac electrophysiology
• Biomedical optics
• Medical imaging

Background:

• Optical imaging of cardiac transmembrane potentials is crucial for understanding heart function.
• Traditional monocular imaging setups limit the field of view, hindering studies of large-scale cardiac dynamics.
• Visualizing the entire epicardial surface is essential for analyzing complex phenomena like fibrillation and defibrillation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a panoramic cardiac visualization algorithm for comprehensive epicardial surface imaging.
• To enable the measurement of epicardial electrodynamics on a geometrically accurate heart model.
• To overcome the limitations of monocular imaging in cardiac electrophysiology.

Main Methods:

• Development of a panoramic cardiac visualization algorithm.
• Algorithm performs surface geometry reconstruction and panoramic fluorescence data mapping.
• Verification using synthetic images of a patterned ball and a model heart; accuracy assessed by registration image errors.

Main Results:

• The algorithm successfully reconstructs heart surface geometry and maps fluorescence data.
• Mean registration image errors were approximately 2 pixels, translating to ~3 mm on the heart geometry.
• Demonstrated visualization of epicardial wavefronts on an isolated, perfused rabbit heart.

Conclusions:

• The developed panoramic algorithm provides geometrically accurate, large-scale visualization of epicardial electrodynamics.
• This technique significantly advances the study of cardiac wavefront dynamics, particularly during arrhythmias.
• The system offers a powerful tool for in-depth cardiac electrophysiology research.